1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



893 



loss of the honey crop, and do away with 

 all the drone comb, without further work. 



Some are of the opinion that a colony 

 should not be brushed or shaken before 

 queen-cells are started. In the small Lang-- 

 stroth hives the starting- of queen-cells will 

 be a sig-n that the size of the hive ( too small 

 for the development of the colony) has caus- 

 ed the swarming- impulse. My large hives 

 give an unlimited space for development, 

 and consequently, in most years, no queen- 

 cells are started at all; but the colonies are 

 strong when the honey-flow commences. If 

 I should wait for starting queen-cells I 

 would not get any brushed swarms nor 

 comb honey. 



It was recommended to brush all the bees 

 from the combs. I never tried this — was 

 afraid a large part of young brood would 

 be lost, even in our hot climate. I do not 

 think any thing is lost by being on the safe 

 side, and have some few bees remaining on 

 the Combs. The old bees will soon fly to 

 the new swarm, and only the young bees 

 remain on the brood combs. Nine or ten 

 days afterward a large part of these bees 

 can be united with the swarm, and after 

 ten days again the rest of them. In this 

 way all the bees can be utilized for the 

 swarm, and all increase prevented. Of 

 course, the brood-combs can be utilized in 

 other ways for strengthening weak colonies; 

 nuclei can be changed to strong colonies; 

 they can be set over an excluder, and queen- 

 cells raised in this super a la Doolittle, etc. 



In criticising this method we should not 

 forget that its purpose is the production of 

 as much comb honey as by any other plan, 

 and at the same time do away wilh all 

 swarming, so we do not need even a watch- 

 man in an outyard, and are not forced to be 

 there at a certain day. This was not pos- 

 sible before, and nobody thought that, by 

 the use of the well-known practice of brush- 

 ing swarins, this problem could be practi- 

 call3' solved. If we produce extracted and 

 comb honey in the same yard we do not 

 even depend on these brushed swarms. We 

 can form our swarms for comb-honey pro- 

 duction in other ways; some of them are 

 even preferable. We can make the swanns' 

 as strong as we like them. We can give 

 them a young fertilized or unfertilized queen 

 at will. So we see that the forming of 

 brushed swarms is not the main point of the 

 method recommended by me some years ago. 



Converse, Tex., Oct. 8. 



[Mr. Stachelhausen is evidently the pio- 

 neer in the forced, brushed, or shook swarm 

 idea in this country. While he may not 

 have been the first one to advocate it, he 

 was the first one to give it such prominence 

 that it took hold in America. Recently 

 some one wrote me, complaining that he 

 himself was the author of the brushed or 

 shook swarm method, and that I had failed 

 to give him proper credit. But Mr. Stach- 

 elhausen goes so far back of him and all 

 others that I think we may yield to him the 

 palm. While I have not tested forced 



swarms myself, I have seen the plan tested, 

 and I have seen so much corroborating evi- 

 dence that I think it is safe now to say that 

 some bee-keepers, in some localities at 

 least, can practice forced swarming with 

 profit to such an extent that they can put a 

 large working force of bees into a small 

 brood-nest, keep them from swarming, and 

 keep them at work. That means dollars 

 and dollars. — Ed.] 



•THE NEW "WILEY LIE" SCARE. 



Early Cutting of Alfalfa or Before it is in Bloom 

 Not to be Feared by Bee=keepers. 



BY M. A. GIIL. 



Mr. Root: — I can not refrain from having 

 a little to say in the matter of cutting alfal- 

 fa before it blooms, to secure the best hay, 

 and on the subject that alfalfa honey will 

 soon be a scarce article on the market. 



I think the above should be looked upon 

 by the honey-producers of the West very 

 much as they did the ' ' Wiley lie, ' ' of which 

 it smacks very much. 



First, it is not a fact that alfalfa makes 

 better hay if cut before it is mature; nei- 

 ther is it true of any other hay or fodder, 

 any more than it would be true that an ap- 

 ple would be better if picked when half- 

 grown, or an ear of corn gathered before it 

 is mature. Some years ago experiments 

 were carried on at the New Mexico Agri- 

 cultural Station to determine at what stage 

 of growth alfalfa would make the greatest 

 amount of food value. One cutting was 

 made (as I remember reading the report) 

 when the alfalfa was about ten inches high; 

 another when the plant was budded; an- 

 other when in full bloom (that means that 

 the petals of the first bloom had begun to 

 wither), and still another after it had gone 

 to seed or nearly so. The hay of each cut- 

 ting was weighed per acre. The cutting 

 made when in full bloom weighed over 400 

 lbs. per acre more than any other cutting. 

 The four different cuttings were fed to four 

 different bunches of steers which were 

 weighed before the feeding commenced, and 

 every five days for one month. The results 

 in pounds gained by the steers while being 

 fed during this test were greatly in favor of 

 the cutting in full bloom (besides the differ- 

 ence in the amount of hay per acre). The 

 next best was from that cut while in the 

 bud with cutting which had nearly gone to 

 seed— very close after in results. The poor- 

 est results were from the first cutting, and 

 three steers died during the test from this 

 early cutting. I have had considerable ex- 

 perience in feeding alfalfa hay to different 

 animals, and I always buy it where it is 

 left standing until in full bloom. Not until 

 the plant is in full bloom has it reached its 

 highest state of perfection, and capable of 

 making the greatest number of pounds of 

 nutritious hay per acre; and this is why 

 the first cutting is so much better in food 

 value than any of the subsequent cuttings. 



